Hi, I purchased Ogon sarasa a couple years ago and have been growing it in a container. It has grown fast and seems very vigorous and I was thinking I might put it in the ground this year. I did a search on forums to see if I could find any info about it, but only found one thread with some pictures. None were from zone 5 growers. So my question is, for those of you growing it, does it seem pretty strong and vigorous for you? Do you think I should chance it? Kay
kay, I've only had mine for a year, but it survived just fine in a pot and we got down to 6 degrees this winter. Not sure how that relates to your climate, but that's all I have... Have you tried any of the Japonicums yet? They're supposed to be more cold hardy.
Actually, after I posted this I started doing some searches and quite a few put it as a zone 5. I am growing more of the japonicums each year, but I still find that many palmatums will do zone 5. I think I will try it. I had an Oregon Sunset in a good location and all but the lower branch on it died. I have been undecided whether or not to pull it and toss it for about two years. I decided this weekend. I pulled it, put it in a container, and it makes a nice looking bonsai. So now I will put the Ogon Sarasa where it was and see what happens. Kay
How big is your tree? I live in St. Louis, zone 5b or 6 depending on who you ask. The lowest temps seem to be about -5 F. While my experience is limited (a grand total of two winters now!) I can say that I have had no winter deaths of about 50 trees (47 in ground and 3 in non-overwintered containers). This is not to say that all thrive during winter. A few species are having enough dieback, that if this pattern continues I will likely give up on them. Bonfire in particular comes to mind. The point is that if the tree is decent enough size, the I suspect that the dieback will be limited enough that you could just go back to the container. It sounds like you have already come to the same conclusion. FYI, once I get a final tally after budbreak, I am going to post which species did particulary well or poorly with the cold. I would love if it any other zone 5/6er's did the same to see if any patterns emerge. Thanks for that info regarding japonicums. I have heard the same anecdotes and it is more stimulus to add some to my garden. For what its worth I have seen Beni Kawa listed as a cold hardy species, but have no experience with the tree. Also, if you haven't already, you may wish to type in zone 5 to Maple Mountains tree finder for additional suggestions, while the website is still up. Good luck
My Ogon Sarasa is about 2 1/2 feet tall. It's still pretty small. It has just been so vigorous; it was a stick about two years ago. I've been walking around looking at buds and limbs. So far things look pretty good. I haven't unwrapped anything (I spray with WiltPruf and wrap in floating row cover as long as they are small enough to be wrapped), but one that I planted last year was Fireglow and it was pretty large and between the row cover, ice storms and snow, it was all bent over and I figured I should get the row cover off the top, so I did and just left it around the bottom half of the tree. The buds look great and there doesn't seem to be any dieback. I have noticed a lot of dead in some of my older maples (Garnet, Beni Scichihenge in particular), but it doesn't look like anything abnormal. I start taking off the wrapping around April 15, so I'll report back then. I'll be anxious to see your report, too. St. Louis is about two weeks ahead of us. I always notice this because I have relatives in the area and often go to visit. Flowers, shrubs, I can always figure mine will be in bloom two weeks later. How cold did you eventually get this winter? We had a record -22 degrees and about another -20 day, too. Then it went back to normal temps. Like someone on another post said it came at a good time. Things were frozen solid and we had snow cover. I tried Beni Kawa, Sango Kaku, and had no luck. Also Seiryu. I have seen some nice specimens at a garden we visited one time with the Hosta Society when they had their regional in St. Louis. I don't remember the man's name, but he had: Shishigashira, Beni Schichihenge, Emperor 1 (which I have also seen a giant specimen of growing in Chicago), Fireglow, Tsuma GAki, WInter Flame, Orange Dream, Hanami Nishiki, Villa Toronto, Verdis, Sharp's Pygmy, Acer campestre and A.camp. 'Ruby Glow,' Sango Kaku, Shindeshojo, and Katsura. At least those were the ones I took pictures of. I have tried some with success, but not many (successfully). I don't have the nerve to put my potted Villa Toronto out, nor my Orange Dream. I have been trying the campestres and they seem to be doing well. I put out Sharp's Pygmy last fall. If you ever want anyone to talk maples with, I'd love to see yours. I teach and am always up for a road trip in the summer.
You are welcome to stop by anytime. You should temper you expectations though as there may not much to see at this point. I have been at this for less than two years, so with the exception of a few acer palmatums which have been on the property long before I was here, my maples mainly look like small sticks. I am pretty sure my neighbors think I am off my rocker, and I know my wife does. Maybe I'll show them pictures of Ed's Garden and tell them, "stick with me for about 20 more years and you won't be disappointed!" A friend of mine who knew peripherally about my maple craze drove the point home unintentionally. Many of my maples line the front drive. He came to my place for the first time, drove right past them and asked innocently, "so, where are all the maples?". Ouch. Disappointing to hear about your seiryu. I chose that one in particular because there are many nurseries who sell it locally and there are many mature species at the botanical garden , so I figured that it must do OK in this zone. The lowest that it got here was about -5 F. I killed an orange dream last year and am retrying my luck. So far so good and showing nice bud swell. I only have three maples in container and these are left out all winter with no precautions except healthy amounts of mulch. It sounds as though my winter preparations are lazier than yours. Great to hear that the campestres do well for you. Carnival is one of my favorites. I bought a very small graft last year which a deer ate in one bite. I am on the search for a bigger (but hopefully reasonably priced) replacement. I have 4-5 maples on definite life support. This would put my "kill rate" at about 15%. 50% of those deaths were at least in part from inexperience.
I'm in Zone 5 -- Fort Collins, CO. We had 2 days at -10 this winter. I have Bloodgood, Seiryu, Orangeola and Butterfly in the ground. The Bloodgood and Seiryu are both about 7 ft tall, and I got them for $90 each last summer at a small nursery that had them in stock for several years (no one crazy enough to try them out, I suppose...). I also have Hogyoku, Kamagata, Emperor 1, Jiro Shidare, Inaba Shidare, Sekimori, Sango Kaku and Shirasawanum Moonrise in pots. I put these in my unheated garage over the winter. Kamagata is the first to push leaves, with, oddly, Emperor 1 close behind. Sango Kaku is also starting to go. EVERYTHING has buds swelling, and the one that seemed to have the hardest winter was the Butterfly with a fair bit of twig dieback. But the Butterfly is just a little one -- about a 1/2 meter tall. I will give a full report once Spring has really sprung. All of these maples (except the Sango Kaku) are rated for zone 5. However, in general there seems to be very little information about these plants in zone 5, so I'll be eager to hear from all of you and see what's working in your zone 5's. Tom
Tom, Don't you have the additional problem of dry conditions in Colo.? My daughter lives in Aurora and has been talking about how dry it's been this winter. I'll be curious to see how yours do. Have you given any supplemental water this winter, or has your area had enough? Kay
Apologies if I'm going off-topic, but don't Acer palmatums prefer a dry winter? I thought the Japanese winters were cold but relatively dry. In England the winters are never too cold for JMs but the conditions are often much wetter than ideal and we have to ensure good winter drainage.
The climate in Colorado is generally very dry, and we have crappy clay soil. This winter has been especially dry, so I watered everything over the winter -- about twice per month in December, January, February and March, and I think that has been critically helpful. As far as the soil, I have just been digging the hole, and mixing about 50/50 clay and acidified compost. That seems to have been working so far, but I am still quite the neophyte -- only my third year with the Japanese Maple obsession. The other problem here is that we had about 2 weeks of 70's and sunny and now were back to the 40's-50's and below freezing at night. I have a crabapple tree that was leafing out very early, and the leaves don't look so good right now. I water a lot during the summer when it is gets really hot and dry. Quite honestly, the hardest thing to manage is the winds, but that is another story. This year I am adding protekt and dynagrow to the watering schedule. I'm really curious to see if the protekt makes a difference with cold / hot / wind / and other things. Tom
Hi--- Protekt is here: http://www.pacificcoastmaples.com/j...ition/protekt-silicone-solution-/prod_32.html I do believe it is a silicone, and I use it with the watering schedule, so I'm not spraying it on as a foliar spray -- not sure if one could do that...
